Ernmark
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Posts posted by Ernmark
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https://xkcd.com/2920/ - don't see many BM-related comics these days!
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Here's a section Corner Marker in Wyoming
https://www.Waymarking.com/waymarks/wm186ZF_T22N_R118W_S35_S36_T21N_S2_S1_Lincoln_County_Wyoming by Tom.dog
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I've used the machines in several places in the Eastern US & also in Toronto.. (never took a photo of the machines, tho
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..i know a few of us were able to 'undestroy' a station, or at least get it published
I have a few days of vacation next month & I'm hoping to look for a 'destroyed' mountaintop mark while I'm in the area..it is a vacation after all!
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This is one of mine that actually made it into the NGS Datasheet for KW2722 -
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..although the vistas aren't quite as stunning as those in the US Southwest - there's a cool little park in Gaithersburg, MD that is worth a visit (Observatory Park) where there are 5 marks with a PID - here's one of them...most sit along a little path that is meant to portray the wobble of the Earth:
https://www.gaithersburgmd.gov/recreation/parks-fields/observatory-park
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I'll start - here's JJ0739 from Kansas taken by the Snowdog over on Waymarking (https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/ds_mark.prl?PidBox=JJ0729)
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Thought I'd try to revive the old threads from a few years back (ok - a lotta years back)
see:
There's more, but here was the gist what may be from the first post in 2004 :
"Some benchmark pictures are really excellent! Sometimes I "set as background" one for my computer for a while, until I find another really good one. I propose a thread here for posting really good benchmark pictures, either your own or someone else's.
Contest rules: (yeah I know, I'm always proposing so many rules; ... anyway...)
1. No intersection stations (the station IS the tower, building, etc.) Why? Well they all look pretty good, but they're not really all that 'benchmarky'.
2. The disk has to be at least vaguely visible in the picture. No - 'view from', 'the area', etc. with no PID marker in it. Why? It's gotta be a Benchmark picture!
3. It has to be a PID in the database, or at least one of its reference marks or its azimuth mark (in case they don't have their own PID).
4. No closeup of just the disk. (Come on, it's just a disk - where's the nice scenery?)"
...anyone want to revive an old tradition?
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..was going to do that, but forgot - done!
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Useful Links for US Benchmarks Category -
Benchmark Map Viewer - By Scaredy Cat Films - maintained by fellow GC member Monkeykat
National Geodetic Survey Data Explorer (noaa.gov) - this is the viewer from the National Geodetic Survey
Station Selection - NOAA Tides & Currents - also from the NGS - a great source of info on tidal benchmarks.
BenchMap - Apps on Google Play - Benchmark App available in Play Store for Android users
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hi - if you took pics feel free to post it over here;) - https://www.Waymarking.com/cat/details.aspx?f=1&guid=424f2581-a02d-4914-9bc8-8f4cafe02680&gid=2&exp=True
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Chapterbook - I'd be interested as well when you're ready. Again, thanks for saving as much of our benchmarking history as you did! As others have said here & on the GC 'bad news thread' - there was a lot of useful, edifying, & entertaining information! ...and some fantastic pictures!
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..assuming a lot of the links we've used over the years are gone. In case the BM forums go away on this side, I'll try to keep one going in the Waymarking side...
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For those of you who are still fans of benchmarks & don't know about some of the other resources available to search databases - here are a few links to check out:
Benchmark Map Viewer - By Scaredy Cat Films - maintained by fellow GC member Monkeykat
National Geodetic Survey Data Explorer (noaa.gov) - this is the viewer from the National Geodetic Survey
Station Selection - NOAA Tides & Currents - also from the NGS - a great source of info on tidal benchmarks.
I'm thinking that those of us benchmarkers leftover from the purge on the Geocaching side can keep a thread or 2 going on over here!
Edit - also for Android users, there's a cool BM app - BenchMap - Apps on Google Play
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Thanks for your work chapterbook - I went through my logs and grabbed the top dozen of so of my favorite logs, but I'm sure I missed many many more. I also tried to grab some of the forum topics in case they go away as there was so much interesting & historical information regarding marks from all over the country!
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A final thought - a majority of US Benchmarks submissions at Waymarking.com contain links back to the grocaching.com/mark site, so expect a degradation in the information contained there as well
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On 11/9/2022 at 10:42 PM, Keystone said:
As a reminder, stories and photos about individual benchmarking adventures can still be posted to the Benchmarking Forum section. A number of off topic posts have been hidden from view.
U.S. Benchmarks leader over at Waymarking here again - so what happens to all the www.geocaching.com/mark links in the forums AND on the existing waymarks that reference them as well? I'd hazard a guess that 70% of the submissions on WM link back to the BMs on GC...
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I just found out about this today - really disheartening! Especially if they pull the plug sooner rather than later - will have to grab some of my favorite logs and photos while I still can!
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I posted a few thoughts on the Release Notes Thread - the longer I think about it the madder I get - and I just found out today. Thank you to the the OP - I at least might have a few days to save some of my favorite photos & logs ...at least ones I can think of...
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I’m the leader of the US Benchmarks Category over at Waymarking.com – I found this out today & am as surprised as everyone else. What disappoints me is the lack of notice - assuming the deletion will be close to November 1st. I have 3375 logs and possibly close to 10,000 pictures I chose to upload (encouraged by GC) to support my logs. If these pages, logs, ‘player’ photos are to go away – I certainly would appreciate having a longer time (say until 12/31) to save the content of my favorite logs and photos somewhere else – perhaps even in the US Benchmark category on Waymarking.com.
Speaking to the comment “Many benchmark listings refer to marks that were removed or destroyed long ago” - of my own 3375 logs, 227 were considered destroyed …6.7% (in a not overly rural area) - I’m not sure that moved/destroyed is a valid argument for cessation of the benchmarking category.
The main Benchmark Hunting page states “Overall, 166401 benchmarks have been recovered in 233505 logs. There are 736425 total benchmarks in the database” – this means less than 23% of the Geocaching Benchmark Database have been found so in the 20 years it has existed – there are many more left out there.
Given that “you can’t fight City Hall and this is a cold hard business decision, I would suggest that GC ‘grandfather’ the existing logs/photos allowing access by their owners OR porting over to Waymarking in some fashion, OR allowing a reasonable amount of time for those of us who put 100s of hours in creating logs to save our data elsewhere.
Many of us Benchmarkers are Charter or longtime Premium Members – supporting Groundspeak while doing little or no caching – I think giving us direct and adequate notice is deserved.
I would also hope that there would be a few KB of server space kept for all of the Benchmarking forum threads – a lot of good information and stories reside in there.
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Shirley - I haven't been in there for a while - sorry to hear about John. I always looked forward to reading your logs...was like being part of the adventure! I hope the BM forum threads will continue to exist as a Waymarking topic. I'm going to have to quickly save logs & pics from some of my favorite Benchmark Hunts - would be nice to have BMs ported over to the Waymarking BM category.
As the current leader of the US Benchmarks Category, I'll try to revamp & put in some more info on using resources that we collectively have all discovered & come to rely on in our benchmarking journeys...
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I feel so lost....
in Benchmarking
Posted · Edited by Ernmark
Love xkcd - I posted that one to the Surveyor Jokes thread here the other day - today's xkcd is great as well if you participated in the Eclipse Fun last week - https://xkcd.com/2921/
PS - still feel lost without geocaching.com/mark !